Poverty and Employability Effects

PEP working paper serie 2006-14

34 Pages Posted: 17 May 2018 Last revised: 16 Jul 2018

See all articles by Lucas Ronconi

Lucas Ronconi

University of Buenos Aires - CONICET

Juan Sanguinetti

University of San Andres, Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Institucional (CEDI)

Sandra Fachelli Oliva

Ministerio de Economia, Argentina

Virginia Casazza

Independent

Ignacio Franceschelli

University of San Andres (UMSA)

Date Written: June 1, 2006

Abstract

In 1993 Argentina began implementing workfare programs, and workfare has become a central public policy starting 2002 when the government increased the number of beneficiaries from 100,000 to 2 million people in a country of 38 million. We explore targeting, poverty and employability effects of workfare before 2002 based on the permanent household survey (EPH). We find that the program was pro-poor although more than one third of participants did not satisfy the eligibility criteria. Our estimates suggest that the income of participants increased during treatment – particularly for women – indicating beneficial short run poverty effects. However, the long run effects of the program are not obvious due to selection on treatment completion. We present evidence suggesting that – for a large fraction of participants – the program generated dependency and did not increase their human capital.

Keywords: Workfare, evaluation, Argentina

Suggested Citation

Ronconi, Lucas and Sanguinetti, Juan and Fachelli Oliva, Sandra and Casazza, Virginia and Franceschelli, Ignacio, Poverty and Employability Effects (June 1, 2006). PEP working paper serie 2006-14, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3173205 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3173205

Lucas Ronconi

University of Buenos Aires - CONICET ( email )

Buenos Aires
Argentina

Juan Sanguinetti (Contact Author)

University of San Andres, Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Institucional (CEDI) ( email )

Vita Dumas 284
(1644) Victoria, Pcia
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1644
Argentina

Sandra Fachelli Oliva

Ministerio de Economia, Argentina ( email )

Argentina

Virginia Casazza

Independent

Ignacio Franceschelli

University of San Andres (UMSA) ( email )

Vita Dumas 284
(1644) Victoria, Pcia
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires 1644
Argentina

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